TIM COOK’S LEGACY: Apple just lost a Facebook: Market value decline since peak exceeds value of nearly any US company. “Apple shares have fallen by 39.1 percent since Oct. 3, when the stock hit a 52-week high of $233.47 a share. With its market cap down to about $674 billion, those losses are larger than individual value of 496 members of the S&P 500 — including Facebook and J.P. Morgan.”

Related: Apple’s iPhone has lost its magic.. “If the current iPhones aren’t selling well now, one must wonder what will happen if the next generation represents only minor upgrades.”

Apple as a company was meant to be headed by a product-obsessed genius, not a gray social justice warrior. It is doing poorly under the latter.

SUSTAINABILITY:

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth is offering a $1,218 “ecofeminism” course in which students will learn about the “oppression of nature.”

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LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Nancy Pelosi Is in the House and Much, Much More. “The media was the real freak show yesterday, as they gushed and fawned over the new “diverse-est evah” Congress. I don’t see diversity as a virtue, I just want my elected officials to competently represent my interests, I don’t care about their gender or their skin color. But the media really, really, really cares about diversity, maybe more than anything else in the world. So when they have an opportunity to showcase it, they are going to sing from the roof!”

STACY MCCAIN: The Wheel Turns on SPLC’s Heidi Beirich. “It is not illegal to express opinions with which Heidi Beirich disagrees, nor is it illegal to befriend people Heidi Beirich dislikes. And yet, as an employee of the SPLC, Dr. Beirich seemed to believe that she was authorized to determine the limits of our personal liberty. Because no one has ever offered to pay me to write the full story of my career as a Thought Criminal, and because I have not (yet) felt any need to share every detail of that sage, Dr. Beirich never understood my jocular good cheer in response to being defamed and, on advice of my close personal friend Bert the Samoan Lawyer, I have been content to watch patiently as she has proceeded down her chosen path to her inevitable destruction.”

Background here from PJM’s Tyler O’Neil.

DANIEL MITCHELL: The Greatest-Ever Act of Tax Avoidance?

NICE: USB-C with secret codes making connections secure.

USB hasn’t exactly been known for its security features.

CALVINBALL CONSTITUTIONALISM: The Path to Give California 12 Senators, and Vermont Just One. Remember, if the left is losing, it means the rules need to be changed.

KOWTOWING: Former NYT editor claims publisher drafted letter “all but apologizing” to China for tough story.

Did they at least get “access” in exchange?

MICHAEL WALSH: STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH MITT. “But once rebuffed, Mitt pivoted, ran for the U.S. Senate, won, and now stands ready to inherit the mantle of Bob Corker and Jeff Flake as the only living Republicans the media will quote with approval. That both of their political careers ended thanks to their opposition to Trump doesn’t seem to have occurred to him.”

And that the media destroyed both McCain and Romney when they ran for the White House doesn’t seem to occur to Mitt as well. Very strange.

CHICAGOLAND: Alderman Edward Burke charged with attempted extortion of Burger King owners.

The criminal charge was jaw-dropping even for a city with a long history of public corruption. While dozens of his City Council colleagues have been convicted and sent to prison over the decades, Burke was largely seen as too clever or sophisticated to be caught. He had faced federal scrutiny several times before but always escaped charges.

For decades, the Southwest Side alderman has used his iron grip on the City Council’s Finance Committee and key role in slating Cook County judges to build a massive amount of political capital.

Burke, who turned 75 last week, often decides whether Chicago’s most important legislation will move forward. He controls millions of dollars in campaign funds. He is the sole steward of the city’s $100 million workers’ compensation program. And he plays a crucial role in redrawing the city’s ward maps — a key in maintaining political power amid shifting demographics.

He’s also married to Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, who was quietly sworn in to a second 10-year term on Nov. 29, the same day her husband’s City Hall and 14th Ward offices were raided. The FBI carried out a second search of Burke’s City Hall office on Dec.13.

But here’s the kicker:

Bhachu also revealed that the FBI found 23 guns when agents raided Burke’s offices in November. As a condition of bond, he must surrender the firearms and any others he may own within 48 hours of his release. He’s also allowed to travel only within the Northern District of Illinois and to his lake house in Power Lake, Wis., while the case is pending.

Emily Zanotti noted on Twitter, “Burke was a key partner with Rahm Emanuel in expanding gun control in Chicago through the mayor’s “Safe Guns Policy.”

The hypocrisy would be astounding were it not completely and rightly expected.

A SMALL VICTORY: Judge Confirms: Oregon Engineer Has a First Amendment Right to Call Himself an Engineer: Even if the Oregon Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying disagrees.

CHANGE: Brazil wants to move embassy to Jerusalem, push reform at WTO.

The national security adviser to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that the leader wants to move Brazil’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, but that logistical considerations were standing in the way.

Retired Army General Augusto Heleno, Bolsonaro’s top adviser on security, did not elaborate. But the country’s powerful agriculture sector is opposed to moving the embassy from Tel Aviv and angering Arab nations that buy billions of dollars worth of Brazilian halal or “permissible” meat each year.

Unless the Arab world can summon up another major source of livestock, this seems like an empty threat.

GERMANS WILL NEVER FORGIVE US FOR THE HOLOCAUST: Der Spiegel’s Cracked Mirror: A reporter with the German magazine fabricated information in more than a dozen articles—most of which were meant to reveal America’s brutality. “Though it is respected abroad as an authoritative news source, Der Spiegel has long peddled crude and sensational anti-Americanism, usually grounded in its brand of knee-jerk German pacifism.”

BECAUSE THE LEFT CARES ABOUT CHILDREN AND OTHER LIVING THINGS: ‘Shout Your Abortion’ Movement Targets Children in Creepy Video. “Imagine telling a child he or she should have been aborted.”

IT’S AN ENTIRELY POLITICAL TERM, SO IT MEANS WHATEVER POLITICS REQUIRES IT TO MEAN AT THE MOMENT: The Ever-Shifting Definition of “Assault Weapons:” The phrase has been used to promote bans on almost every type of gun.

The very heterogeneous group of so-called “assault weapons” has only two things in common. First of all, none of them are automatics or machine guns. Gun prohibition advocates have very effectively created and then exploited public confusion on this point. Second, none of the guns are “assault rifles,” as that term has been defined by experts from the Defense Intelligence Agency. An actual assault rifle is capable of selective fire, meaning that it can fire automatically or semi-automatically with the flip of a selector switch; examples include the U.S. Army M-16, the Soviet AK-47, and the German Sturmgewehr.

In short, “Assault weapon” is just an epithet to stigmatize the largest possible number of guns and gun owners—the breadth of the definition of the moment depending on the politics of the moment.

Lefties manipulate language because if they told the truth, their policies wouldn’t sell.

COCAINE MITCH IS GOING TO HAVE A LONG TWO YEARS: Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen (TN) introduces bill to eliminate the electoral college.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Female former North Carolina English teacher and personal trainer, 39, gets six months in jail for classroom sex with two 17-year-old male students.

CATHY YOUNG ON SOLZHENITSYN: THE FALL OF A PROPHET.

It’s a fascinating piece, particularly on Solzhenitsyn’s complex and controversial last years. The comments section, which takes issue with some elements of Young’s take, is also interesting in its own right.

OPEN THREAD: Bring your ‘A’ game.

MACARTHUR’S COALITION: Another informative Dr. A. A. Nofi review. Title: MacArthur’s Coalition: US and Australian Military Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area, 1942-1945.

Long quote but indicative of the book’s worth:

In this new account of Allied command and operations in the Southwest Pacific, Prof. Dean (University of Western Australia) offers far more coverage of the Australian side of things than is commonly found in American treatments.

Dean makes a good case that MacArthur’s ego, his meddlesome command style, and his disdain for Australian troops and officers, attitudes largely shared by most of the general’s Americans-only staff, often hampered Allied operations, leading to failures and unnecessary casualties. Nor is Dean unaware of negative attitudes and shortcomings on the Australian side, and he also reminds us that no one – American, Australian, or British – anticipated the need for multinational commands before the war. While Allied forces in Europe were able to develop effective combined staffing and planning processes, things didn’t work out that well in the Southwest Pacific, largely due to personality issues, and so many errors were made, and not all corrected.

I skip ahead but here’s the sign off:

A volume in the Kansas series “Modern War Studies”, MacArthur’s Coalition is an excellent read for anyone interested in the Pacific War or in command problems in coalition warfare.

Like it or not, the 21st century is an era of coalition warfare. But so were WW2 and the Cold War. Good reasons to read Dr. Nofi’s review.

GREAT MOMENTS IN DISPASSIONATE OBJECTIVITY: Politico’s congressional reporter pretty excited that ‘the kids are taking over the House!’

[Politico’s Rachael Bade] sounds excited. We’re not so excited. And we wouldn’t exactly say the kids are “taking over,” seeing as they voted to hand the gavel back to Nancy Pelosi, who’s 78 years old. 

She’s right though: While many in the new majority are getting a bit long in the tooth physically, the grownups are no longer running Congress. But really, what could go wrong this time…?

MINIVANS: 2018 Honda Odyssey Long-Term Test Verdict: It’s Neck and Neck at the Top of the Minivan Segment. “Whether by stigma, buyer preferences toward SUVs, or some sinister combination of both reasons, the minivan market has shrunk as if it’s just waded into frigid water.” Minivans are associated with raising kids, which is a low-prestige activity in our society.